In response to the announcement of proposed new changes to Canada’s environmental assessment regime, Aurore Fauret, 350.org’s Canadian Tar Sands Campaigner offered this response;
“Today’s announcement is the result of tens of thousands of people across Canada organizing around Canada’s broken environmental reviews. But, while this is a win for people power, we won’t stop taking action until Canada’s environmental reviews are based in science and not, like we’ve seen so many times in the past, put under Big Oil’s thumb. Environmental assessments will only have the peoples’ trust if they are based in the clear-eyed, science-based knowledge that meeting our Paris climate commitments means Canada stops building new fossil fuel projects and starts doubling down on renewables.
The truth is, it’s hard to believe Justin Trudeau will keep his word when the Kinder Morgan pipeline, reviewed under Stephen Harper’s rules, has this government’s full throated support, and when both Minister McKenna and Prime Minister Trudeau are allowing the Teck Frontier mine, the largest open-pit tar sands mine ever proposed, to be reviewed with no consideration of its climate impact. ”
Clayton Thomas-Muller, 350.org’s Stop-it-at-the-Source campaigner, added;
“Frankly, I’m confused. On Tuesday, this government announced new fisheries protections. On Wednesday, the House of Commons passed a bill giving the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples assent into law and, today, this government finally announced their plans to overhaul environmental assessments in Canada. It begs the question; why are they still supporting the Kinder Morgan pipeline?
Kinder Morgan’s Trans-Mountain project endangers wild salmon and at-risk killer whales, it violates Indigenous rights and it puts the water, land and our climate at risk. It’s almost like there’s one Justin Trudeau in Ottawa pretending to stand up for people and the planet, and another one travelling across Canada to bulldoze our rights and wreck our environment.”
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Contact: Cam Fenton, [email protected], 604-369-2155